Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility

Page Contents

Abstract

This document explains the key role that harmonization of standards
plays in increasing the accessibility of the Web for people with
disabilities. It examines how adoption of a consistent set of
international technical standards, the World Wide Web Consortium's
(W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines for Web content,
authoring tools, browsers and media players can drive more rapid
progress on Web accessibility, and make the design and development of
accessible Web sites more efficient.

Common standards for Web content accessibility and for authoring
tools encourages the development of tools that support production of
accessible Web content. Likewise, the adoption of a consistent standard
for browser and media player accessibility would improve access to and
reinforce the accessibility of Web content, and would help ensure that
accessible content will be more available through assistive
technologies used by some people with disabilities.

This document introduces the concept of harmonization and causes of
fragmentation in the area of Web accessibility standards, and examines
the impact of harmonization and fragmentation on Web developers, tool
developers, and organizations. It also suggests action steps for
promoting Web accessibility standards harmonization.

Overview

In this document "standards
harmonization" refers to the
adoption of
a consistent set of international
technical standards
for accessibility
of:

Web content

browsers and media players

authoring tools

Around the world there is currently fragmentation
-- conflicting,
divergent technical standards -- rather than
harmonization of Web accessibility standards. While W3C's Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the most broadly adopted Web
accessibility standard
internationally, many countries have developed or are in the process of
developing
their
own versions of technical guidelines or standards.

Furthermore, there is sometimes one
version of a
guideline
or standard at the national level, different versions at the provincial
or state level, and yet different versions adopted by commercial,
educational, and
non-governmental organizations within the same country. For
organizations
with audiences spanning different regions or economic sectors, simply
keeping
track
of the different requirements can be a challenge.

Harmonization of Web accessibility standards is key to making
an
accessible Web, because it creates a unified market for authoring tools
that produce conformant content. This unified market in turn drives
more
rapid development of improved authoring tools. Improved
authoring tools make it easier to create accessible Web sites, and to
repair previously inaccessible
sites; for instance, by prompting for accessibility information such as
alternative text for graphics, captions for audio, or summaries for
data tables. Widespread
availability of improved authoring tools can enable accessible design
to become the prevailing
design mode even for Web developers only minimally aware of the
rationale
for
Web accessibility, or disinclined to learn guidelines and
techniques for
accessibility.

Standards harmonization also creates a more compelling market
for
developers of tools used to evaluate Web content accessibility. It
enables
re-use of training and technical assistance resources for Web
accessibility across different regions and economic sectors. Standards
harmonization
enables better access to
information through browsers and media players, and better
interoperability with specialized technologies that some people with
disabilities must
rely
on. It enables development of information repositories containing
accessible, compatible, and re-usable content.

Together these three WAI guidelines provide mutually
reinforcing
solutions which result in more comprehensive and effective
accessibility. W3C/WAI
continues to advance these three guidelines by updating and refining
them as Web technologies evolve, and is currently developing updated versions of the guidelines.

Current Situation

Fragmentation of Web
accessibility guidelines can impact progress on Web
accessibility in various ways:

Changing the wording of individual provisions
in accessibility guidelines often
changes the technical
meaning of the provisions. This in turn changes what is required to
meet a given level of conformance in those guidelines. This
can
make it more difficult for developers of authoring tools and evaluation
tools (which are used to evaluate the accessibility of Web content), as
they will then need to support potentially conflicting sets of
implementation and evaluation techniques.

Combining two or more different accessibility
provisions
may likewise affect the
meaning of these provisions. Again, this can change what is required to
meet a given level of conformance to accessibility guidelines. As
above, this can increase the burden for developers of
authoring
tools and evaluation tools, which play a key role in facilitating the
production and evaluation of accessible Web content.

Omitting or adding accessibility provisions
likewise changes what is required to meet a given level of conformance.
This may similarly make it more difficult for developers of authoring
tools and evaluation tools to support the resulting reduced or
expanded conformance levels.

Various circumstances or beliefs in different countries and
organizations can contribute to the fragmentation of Web
accessibility standards. For each such factor, or "fragmentation
driver," however, there is also a good reason to promote harmonization
of standards:

Fragmentation Driver

Reason for Harmonization

A restriction on the types of standards that
governments can adopt; with a belief that W3C is not an official
standards body

W3C is the leading standards body for the Web industry.
Many governments have adopted HTML or XML, and therefore
already
have mechanisms whereby they can adopt W3C
standards.

A requirement that only standards officially available
in local language(s) can be adopted

The belief that only local guidelines can meet
the needs of the local disability community

Disability needs with regard to Web accessibility do
not vary significantly from country to country.

The belief that the needs of people with disabilities
outside a country are different or not relevant

The
Web is worldwide.
People with
disabilities from other countries, with the same needs for
accessibility and using the same kinds of assistive technologies, may
need access to the Web-based resources of
a particular country.

The belief that W3C/WAI guidelines were developed by a
single country

W3C/WAI guidelines were developed with broad
international input, and reflect needs from around the world.

The belief that development of local guidelines is the
best activity in which to invest local funding for Web accessibility

Development of local guidelines takes scarce resources
away
from activities where building local capacity is crucial -- such as
development of education,
awareness, training and technical assistance on Web accessibility.

The belief that it is more practical in the long term
to have locally developed guidelines

Because Web technologies are constantly evolving,
ongoing
development and maintenance of local guidelines and techniques into the
future may be prohibitively resource-intensive.

The belief that Web accessibility can be more easily
achieved through locally developed guidelines

Web accessibility can be more easily achieved through
increased availability of supporting tools and resources, including
authoring tools, evaluation tools, browsers, media players,
and training and technical resources. These tools and resources develop
more rapidly when there is a unified market around a consistent
international set of Web
accessibility standards.

Consequences

Web Development

For Web developers using today's authoring tools, development
of
accessible Web sites first requires an awareness of the need
for
Web accessibility, then a deliberate effort to apply WCAG. It may
require working around features of authoring tools that make it hard to
build
accessible Web sites. For instance, some authoring tools still produce
non-standard markup, which can be a barrier for accessibility.
Authoring tools that conform to ATAG provide built-in support
for production of accessible Web sites.

When Web developers develop accessible Web sites
using today's authoring
tools, they may need to work around inconsistent support of Web
standards in
browsers and media players. For instance, inconsistent initial support
in browsers for Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) features, such as
CSS positioning, led many Web developers to rely on less accessible
design
solutions for layout for many years. Browsers and media players that
conformed to UAAG would provide reliable support for accessibility
features, making the jobs of Web developers much easier.

Web developers must already learn a variety of Web
technologies and
tools in order to be competitive in their field. Harmonization of Web
accessibility standards enables Web developers to learn one consistent
set of guidelines and implementation techniques, rather than needing to
learn many different guidelines; and
it allows them to re-use training and technical assistance resources
among
a broader
Web community.

Authoring Tools

Increased availability of authoring tools conforming to the
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) is key to
making the Web accessible because, with such tools, Web content
developers could more easily and more automatically create
accessible Web sites.

Authoring tool developers face competing priorities when
deciding
which features to build into their software. Product managers'
decisions with regard to which features are included in product
releases are frequently based on the extent of demand for a given set
of features throughout their customer base. Harmonized standards mean a
more unified customer demand. This strengthens the business case
for accessibility for authoring tool developers and can tip the
balance towards implementation of
more accessibility features in their products. This, in turn, means
more rapid availability of authoring tools with features supporting
production of accessible content.

Evaluation Tools

Developers of evaluation tools are also impacted by fragmented
standards, as these
can delay, and/or increase the development cost, of the evaluation
tools. Time needed to implement evaluation tests for conflicting
versions of guidelines could otherwise be used to improve evaluation
tools by increasing their usability or accuracy.

Harmonized Web accessibility standards would allow developers
of
accessibility evaluation
tools to concentrate their efforts on implementing one set of
evaluation tests, rather than
multiple tests for overlapping or conflicting guidelines and standards
in different regions or economic sectors. Improved
evaluation tools enable more people to
test Web sites more reliably, and help ensure more accessible Web sites.

Organizations

When there is
fragmentation of standards, organizations that have audiences spanning
different geographic regions, countries, or economic sectors must keep
track
of multiple sets of requirements. Such organizations may need to
provide additional
authoring tools, evaluation tools, training resources and technical
assistance for their Web developers. This can divert resources from the
actual development work needed to ensure accessible Web sites. The
increase in cost and effort
resulting from fragmented standards may consequently make it
more
difficult to make a convincing business case for
accessibility within the organization.

Harmonized Web accessibility standards, on the other hand,
allow
organizations to re-use authoring and evaluation tools, training,
and technical assistance resources throughout the organization, thereby
achieving
more cost-effective accessibility solutions.

Browsers, Media
Players, and Assistive
Technologies

The harmonization of Web accessibility standards is also a
concern with
regard to browsers and media players. Conflicting standards for browser
accessibility can slow implementation of accessibility support.
Browsers
and media players' lack of conformance to the User Agent
Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) makes it harder for people with
disabilities to access content on Web sites, and even to find and use
the accessibility features that are already incorporated in some
browsers and media players.

Some of today's browsers and media players do not provide
access to
certain kinds of accessibility information that a Web content developer
may have
included in a Web site; for instance, long descriptions of complex
visuals such as maps and graphs, or summaries of information in data
tables. UAAG describes how browsers and media players can enable
access to such information.

UAAG also describes
requirements for browsers and media players that can work smoothly with
assistive technologies, which some people with disabilities use, such
as
screen readers, screen magnifiers, and voice recognition software.

Implementation of accessibility standards in browsers and
authoring
tools is mutually reinforcing. Once browser developers implement Web
accessibility features, authoring tool developers have more reason to
provide authoring support for those features. For instance, once
browsers provide access to summaries of data tables, authoring
tool developers then have a stronger rationale to provide a means for
content
developers to add summaries to tables. Similarly, browser developers
are influenced by what authoring tools support, and are more likely to
implement accessibility features once they know that authoring tools
will provide the relevant authoring support.

Information
Repositories

Online information repositories allow the gathering and
storing of
content for re-use in a variety of ways, including the creation of
online
learning modules. If the content in an information repository conforms
to a
consistent accessibility standard, then that content can be more easily
shared
among an unlimited number of users. It can be re-purposed and
personalized
according to user profiles, which may include information on preferred
learning styles and the accessibility requirements of users with
disabilities. With harmonized standards for accessibility of content in
information repositories, educators and learners are able to freely
transform shared resources according to user needs.

Action Steps

W3C continues to update and refine the WAI
guidelines, supporting
techniques, and other resources to keep pace with evolving Web
technologies. The following steps can increase the international
harmonization of
Web accessibility standards, and help lead more rapidly to an
accessible Web:

Participate in development of updated WAI guidelines and support material by
reviewing and commenting on drafts, providing feedback during
implementation trials, and/or participating in WAI Working Groups. (See Participating in WAI)

Ensure that developers of authoring tools, browsers, and
media
players are aware of the need for ATAG- and UAAG- conformant
tools, and aware of how implementation of ATAG and UAAG can improve
interoperability with assistive technologies and accelerate overall
progress on Web accessibility.

For organizations which currently have guidelines that
diverge
from international standards, consider establishing mechanisms for
rapid review and potential transition to the latest version of WCAG.

Assist in preparing authorized translations of WAI
guidelines according to W3C's policy for authorized translations.

Redirect energies from the development of divergent
standards to promoting awareness and providing implementation support
for Web
accessibility.

Document Information

Status: Published: October 2002, minor updates in November 2011 (to account for WCAG 2.0 publication; otherwise, not edited). An incomplete, unapproved draft update of this document is available.
Editor: Judy Brewer, and Education and Outreach
Working Group (EOWG) participants. Developed with support from WAI-TIES, a project of the European Commission IST Programme.